Monthly Archives: February 2012

The former Massachusetts governor was the favorite of 39 percent of the 2,108 caucus goers, while former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum finished second with 32 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 21 percent, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had 8 percent. The situation in Wyoming is really confusing, but these are the only results we’ll have for awhile, and it’s great to have another win for Mitt heading towards Super Tuesday.

Mitt Romney today made the following statement on the results of the Wyoming caucuses:

I want to thank the voters of Wyoming who took the time to participate in their state’s caucuses, and who gave me their support. It is a thrill to have taken first place in Wyoming. Our country is engaged in a great debate about its future direction. The voters here have spoken loudly and told the rest of the country that they want change, and they want a leader who understands that fixing the nation’s economy, and ending Obama’s runaway spending and borrowing, is priority number one.

The adept Romney for President Digital Team today released a new web video answering that question. It’s titled “Liberal Democrats for Santorum.” Democrats voted in the Michigan primary because they know Governor Romney will be the stronger candidate in the general election. These voters did not vote for Rick Santorum; they voted for four more years of President Obama.

Text:

Voter: “My name is Krista Larsen. I’m a Democrat.”

Voter: “I’m Joe Disanno. I’m a democratic strategist in the state of Michigan.”

As early election returns began coming in last night, FOX News commentator Rich Lowry (National Review Online editor) commented on the tactic that sickened so many Republicans and Romney supporters – that Santorum himself had issued a rallying cry to Democrats to vote for him in order to stop Romney.

THEN, Lowry went on to say he was put-off by the way Romney “whined” about it.

I don’t know what Lowry was referring to. Romney had a very brief window of time to get the news out about Santorum. He stated the facts on Santorum’s gutter tactics, offered a brief opinion on said tactics, and moved on. NO whining.

As evidenced today, Romney’s new video focuses on Democrats’ correct perception that – should Santorum become the GOP nominee – Obama would clean his clock. The video does not mention Santorum’s own despicable doings in Michigan’s primary.

Lowry is flat-out wrong.

If any candidate should be entitled to a bit of whining, as Ross pointed out, it’s Mitt Romney.

Last night’s vote revealed a lot. Here’s a few interesting tidbits that we noticed:

1) Democrats in Michigan boosted Santorum’s vote tally by 4.8% overall. That is a significant boost, but it was still not enough to counter the strong support for Romney in the state. That means that without the Democrats, Romney would have beat Santorum by almost 7% rather than the 3% result last night. If Democrats hadn’t voted in the Michigan primary, then Romney would have trounced Santorum.

2) The shameful tactic employed by Santorum to appeal to Democrats and Pro-Union workers of the UAW failed. Not only did it fail, but it gave Romney powerful tool to use against Santorum in the coming weeks.

3) By Santorum appealing to Democrats and the Big Unions in Michigan, Santorum revealed his support for Pro-union agendas. Not a good stance in a Republican primary. Also, Santorum seemed to join forces with Michael Moore and Democratic leaders in the state by encouraging Democrats to vote against Mitt Romney. Michael Moore is not the kind of ally a politician wants to have in a Republican election.

4) Romney surpassed the number of voters that supported him in both AZ and MI compared to 2008.

5) Exit polls in AZ show that Romney continued to do well with conservative voters despite the medias continued attempts to claim the contrary. Romney swept nearly every category of voters in AZ. Thank you Arizona!!!

Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, the UAW, President Obama’s Super PAC, Gingrich’s Super PAC, Santorum’s Super PAC, Michael Moore, Fox News, Red State, and the dirty tactics of Santorum’s own campaign couldn’t beat Mitt in Michigan where polls show the fact that Mitt was born here didn’t factor very largely in the decision of voters.

I don’t know if I can remember a candidate surviving and continuing to win when faced with such adversity. Michigan’s results are truly amazing. Despite an onslaught of outrageous attacks from both sides and the media giving voters virtually no where to turn to for the truth, that fact that Mitt still won must strike fear in the heart of the Obama campaign. Even with Catholics across Michigan getting inundated with robocalls calling Mitt a baby-killer, Mitt won the majority of Catholic votes. Mitt ended up winning among republicans by over 10%, he and drastically increased his vote totals from 2008 despite 3 years of sustained attacks by the local and national press claiming that Mitt wanted Michigan and Detroit to fail and lose all of our auto sector jobs. President Obama fears that Mitt could carry Michigan in the general which would make his path to re-election basically impossible. President Obama’s campaign and Super PAC had laid the groundwork to defeat Mitt Romney in Michigan for years, and they failed.

Mitt Romney emerges from this primary as the only acceptable candidate. Newt Gingrich and his Super PAC have disqualified themselves with their blatant dishonest on Bain Capital and with the robocalls they ran against Mitt about the 2nd Ammendment. Rick Santorum has disqualified himself by running robocalls aimed at democrats admitting he is a weaker general election candidate. That is not an appeal to democrats that will result in extra votes in November. It is an admission that Sen. Santorum has no business in the race if even he admits he doesn’t stand much of a chance against President Obama in November. He can argue that he was playing off media stereotypes, but he could’ve let the UAW, Michael Moore, the democrat lawyers, and several other democratic leaders in Michigan make that argument. I cannot recall any instance of an actual Presidential campaign doing what Sen. Santorum’s actual campaign did. Republican voters across the country will not forget and will not forgive Sen. Santorum in time for him to regain momentum. Ron Paul, the only other candidate with an organized and professional campaign, is satisfied with the opportunity to spread his ideals, and has also indicated that Mitt Romney would make a fine and acceptable President.

This race should be over! Mitt continues to build a huge delegate lead while Sen. Santorum’s campaign spent every last penny in Michigan. However, the dishonest media continues to propagate the narrative of Mitt being “wounded”, a “weak-frontrunner”, “stumbling”, or “unable to excite the base”. The media has worked tirelessly to elongate this process in order to increase ratings and/or to stop Mitt Romney from getting the nomination. Their claims don’t hold any water. It must be clear to any honest clear-thinking individual that Mitt is the only candidate that can beat President Obama. Rick Santorum and the actions of the democrats all admit it. It’s time we all rally to Romney.

UPDATE – Romney wins Arizona and Michigan!

Mitt Romney supporters are anxiously awaiting the results of today’s primary elections in Arizona and Michigan. We’re optimistic about a win in The Grand Canyon State. Polling in The Great Lakes State between Governor Romney and Rick Santorum is razor thin. From The Washington Post:

Of the two, Michigan is by far the more competitive race – the candidates have been spending the bulk of their time there in recent days, and both Romney and Santorum hold their primary-night parties there tonight.
[...]Newt Gingrich , who all but bypassed Michigan, is spending the day in his home state of Georgia, where he holds three campaign events, two news conferences and a primary night rally.

And Rep. Ron Paul , who campaigned only lightly in Michigan, is spending his primary night in Springfield, Va.

After spending nearly all of his three hour program encouraging Democrats to get out and vote for Santorum Tuesday, Tony Trupiano makes no apologies for his mischief.

… “[W]e could actually take some serious delegates away from him [Mitt Romney],” Trupiano said

… It turns out many Democrats in this state don’t need a lot of convincing to engage in this kind of strategic voting.

At a polling station in Dearborn Heights, Crystal Larson said her vote for Santorum made her “feel like I made a deal with the devil.”

“Voting for Santorum goes against everything I believe in and everything I’ve ever stood for in my life and to vote for him takes a lot of guts I think,” Larson said.

She said she hadn’t received any of the robo calls, but heard about the Democratic effort in the media and decided to vote for Santorum at the last minute.

Gary Zulinski, also voting in Dearborn Heights, said, “I was listening and Democrats were asked to us come and I said ‘Why not…’

◆ Santorum and Democrat strategist Joe Disano are two guys of one mind:

Michigan Democratic strategist Joe DiSano has taken it upon himself to become a leading mischief maker.

DiSano says he targeted nearly 50,000 Democratic voters in Michigan through email and a robo call to their homes, asking them to go to the polls Tuesday to vote for Rick Santorum in attempt to hurt Romney.

“Democrats can get in there and cause havoc for Romney all the way to the Republican convention,” DiSano told CNN. “If we can help set that fire in Michigan, we have a responsibility to do so,” he said. In his robo call, DiSano says “Democrats can embarrass Mitt Romney … by supporting Rick Santorum on Tuesday.” He asks the person to “press one…if you are committed to voting for Rick Santorum on Tuesday.” DiSano says over the last 7 days or so that he has been working on this, he has gotten some 12,000 commitments from Democratic voters to go to the polls and vote for Santorum.

◆ Michael Moore has also joined Team Santorum (further proof of liberals’ fear of Romney):

Thought experiment: Let’s say that exact same spot reversed the names and ended with the words, “paid for by Mitt Romney for President.” I’d imagine the truuuuuue conservative set would be experiencing coniption fits of rage, and justifiably so. For the last few cycles, the Republican mantra has been some variation of, “we can’t allow liberals to choose our nominee.” Here we have a Republican candidate for president — the guy who’s built his entire campaign around the idea that he’s the authentic, courageous conservative – explicitly appealing to liberals and asking them to cross into the GOP primary to swing the results. Not only that, the thrust of the call is couched in Lefty speak, hitting Romney for opposing the way the auto bailout was structured and executed — a position that Santorum shares. Yet his message to Democrats calls Romney’s position “a slap in the face to every Michigan worker.”

(emphasis added)

◆ Even FOX News’ Eric Bolling (The Five) said today that Santorum’s ad has conservatives scratching their heads… an ad defending the auto bailout? It’s outrageous that a self-proclaimed conservative-you-can-trust GOP presidential candidate – Rick Santorum – and his official campaign would use such deplorable tactics.

Rick Santorum and his campaign have stooped too low to be awarded with the highest office in the land.

“I think the hardest thing about predicting what’s going to happen today is whether Sen. Santorum’s effort to call Democratic households and tell them to come out and vote against Mitt Romney is going be successful or not,” Mr. Romney said at a press conference at his Michigan campaign headquarters here. “I think Republicans have to recognize there’s an effort to kidnap our primary process.”

He added his own pitch to voters: “And if we want Republicans to nominate the Republican who takes on Barack Obama, I need Republicans to get out and vote and say no to the, the uh, dirty tricks of a desperate campaign.”

Washington (CNN) – As voters headed to the polls in Michigan on Tuesday, Rick Santorum defended a robo call his campaign used in the state urging Democrats to support its candidate as a vote against Mitt Romney.

But just a few weeks ago on a tele-town hall with Minnesota voters, Santorum decried the mere idea of open elections as polluting the entire primary process.

UPDATE from Ross: Read a “letter” from President Obama to Sen. Santorum below the fold. (more…)

As I’ve said before, he has turned around many an enterprise, and that’s what we need now. A US government turnaround.

Economic problems will come over the next four years. We already have one junior Senator with no executive experience occupying the Oval Office. Electing a second just seems silly. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney was a successful Massachusetts governor and leader of the Olympics. He led businesses in trouble and got them on the right path. He makes organizations more efficient, and he knows how the economy works. He’s criticized by Santorum as not being conservative enough. Ironically he was plenty conservative for Santorum four years ago when Santorum whole-heartedly endorsed Mitt (post-Romneycare). Romney is plenty conservative, and Ann Coulter, who is very conservative, says Romney is the only true conservative in the race.

We need someone who’s fiscally responsible. Mitt balanced budgets. Santorum busted budgets, voting to raise the debt ceiling without accompanying cuts. He voted for more earmarks than you can shake a stick at, including the bridge to nowhere. While Mitt was working in the private sector, Santorum was taking more money from lobbyists than his Senate cohorts and doling out favors in the K Street Project. He’s no Washington outsider, unless you count the fact his own state rejected his re-election bid by 18 points and made him leave. And I’ve come to the conclusion you just can’t trust him. Witness his latest calls to democrats to come and vote for him in the GOP primary, his special treatment while in the Senate, his seeking reimbursement from Pennsylvania for his kids’ education while they lived in Virginia. It’s all about putting Rick first.

We’re starting to hear about the possibility of $10 a gallon gas. What will that do to the economy? Does Rick Santorum know how to fix it? Mitt does. What would happen if Greece defaulted on its loans? Does Rick know? Mitt does. Can we trust Rick to cut into a $15 trillion national debt? Not if past is prologue. And we know it is. This may be the biggest security issue to face our country in the next few years, and Rick has shown a special propensity to spend, not cut, even when in violation of his principles. Yes, he “takes one for the team,” but right now we need true courage, not people who will go along with the crowd. Meanwhile I know Mitt’s family. I’ve spent plenty of time with them and have had a chance to hang out with him on occasion. They’re very good people. Mitt cares about people. He pays 16% of his sizable income to charity, 60% more than a traditional tithe. He’s honest. He’s funny. He wants to help. He doesn’t need to be president, but he’s willing to serve. He’s the kind of leader we need, not someone who needs the job to maintain their position of being able to suck off the government.

Obama is at serious risk of losing in his re-election bid. But not to Santorum. There have been many articles just on this site listing the many reasons Santorum will not win independents in the general election. Meanwhile, if Michigan votes for him because it doesn’t know or chooses to ignore Rick’s faults, it will extend the GOP race and cost our nominee millions in unnecessary dollars that could have been used to fight Obama, whose war chest will be full. Debating also matters. He proved in the many debates he can’t play defense and he can’t beat Obama in a debate one on one.

Our nation is mostly center-right. The far left will vote for the democrat. The far right will vote for the republican. The people in the middle will select our next president, and they’ll lean to the right, but not if Santorum is the nominee. He keeps attacking separation of church and state and saying things like pre-natal testing of babies is immoral (because it might lead to an abortion) and wanting people to attend college is snobbery. These are not middle-right positions. These are positions most Americans don’t support. That’s why the politicians who really want to defeat Obama support Mitt, and nearly none support Rick.

We’re getting to where this race is critical. The polls give me confidence Arizona will do the right thing Tuesday. Michigan must as well. Make the calls. Tell your friends in Arizona and Michigan: get out and vote for Mitt Romney, the only qualified candidate in the race. Put Rick Santorum away for good, so we can put Obama away for good. We need to get this done, now. If you don’t know if Mitt’s the right choice, trust me. I can tell you from first-hand experience he is.

I thought the ad below was quite an intriguing plot of the DNC, til I heard at the end that it was actually paid for by Rick Santorum for President. It was an official ad?!?! I’m just baffled.

History lesson on “auto bailouts” as they are called: Two things happened – One, the companies received bailout funds from the federal government. That didn’t work so the companies went through – two, a structured bankruptcy. That did work. From the very beginning Romney knew that for the companies to be successful they would have to go through a structured bankruptcy, and that throwing bailout money was a huge waste of cash and would only deter the inevitable. Here is his op-ed from 2008.

As for Santorum – I think they should play this ad on national TV and see how how much love it gets him from the TeaParty and other conservative bonafides. I understand needing to win Democrat votes to win the general election, but teaming up with them to attack Romney from the left in a primary should be a automatic disqualifier in mind of any true conservative.

… [H]e [Santorum] really cannot argue that this robocall is a “very positive ad.” It is a totally negative appeal, seeking Democrat votes – not because they embrace Santorum’s agenda, but because they don’t like Romney not supporting the auto bailouts – which Santorum also opposed!

Before a packed crowd of more than 1000 supporters, presidential candidate Mitt Romney accepted the endorsement of Kid Rock tonight at the Royal Oak Music Theater. Kid Rock and band then performed his anthem “Born Free,” which has become the Romeny campaign theme

Kid Rock (or Mr. Rock as his name will likely appear in the New York Times and on NPR tomorrow) has endorsed Republicans before. Arguably, Kid Rock’s local bona fides have never been as vital for a candidate as for Mitt Romney, who is struggling to fend off an insurgent challenge from Rick Santorum in Romney’s home state.

“He asked me, if I help you, will you help Detroit when you’re president” said Romney. “And I said yes.”

While Mitt hosted the most lively and exciting rally of the entire campaign, Rick Santorum’s campaign was paying for deceptive robocalls. It’s unreal that Sen. Sentorum has resorted to trying to win the election this way, but I have a feeling it is going to backfire big time. Rick Santorum bets the fortune of his candidacy on turning out democrats to vote against Mitt. If Mitt wins Michigan after this dirty little trick, the backlash against Santorum for robocalling dems the ways he has to get democrats to vote for him will be swift. Rick Santorum is admitting he is a weaker general election candidate and everyone is Michigan knows it now.

Watch Mitt expose the Sen. Sentorum and Sen. Santorum flail around to defend himself on Hannity below the fold. (more…)

For a candidate who is not even in office yet, Romney’s Medicare plan is attracting a lot of attention from leaders of congress. Just last week, Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) joined the growing ranks of conservative leaders who have co-sponsored legislation supporting Romney’s Medicare plan.

The media, preferring to focus on “RomneyCare” and how it relates to “ObamaCare,” has largely omitted any discussion of Romney’s achievements on Medicare reform. Romney’s success in crafting a workable plan to reform Medicare has been an unrecognized and significantly under-reported topic in the mainstream media.

As you may recall, Romney’s Medicare reform plan is to give seniors more options on where they can purchase medical insurance by allowing seniors to choose between traditional Medicare or purchasing private insurance with government vouchers. Such a plan would introduce greater competition among insurance companies but also allow seniors to craft health care plans that are more customized to their specific needs.

Sens. Burr and Coburn liked that idea so much they were willing to attach their names to it by co-sponsoring legislation supporting the idea. Sens. Burr and Coburn also adopted Romney’s proposals on how to reduce the cost of Medicare by gradually increasing the age when seniors are eligible to receive Medicare and by requiring the richest seniors to pay more of their health care expenses than the poor.

Recently, Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) also teamed up to co-sponsor Romney’s idea on reforming Medicare. Paul Ryan’s endorsement of Romney’s proposal sends a powerful message to Republicans who might wonder how conservative Romney is on health care reform given Romney’s key role in passing RomneyCare. If Paul Ryan, who is one of the most influential and popular conservatives in Washington, is co-sponsoring Romney’s proposals on Medicare reform, then conservatives in general can trust Romney on this issue.

But the fact that a Democratic Senator, Ron Wyden, also co-sponsored the bill is quite impressive. The Ryan/Wyden bill reveals an important aspect about how Romney creates political goals: namely, that Romney creates bold ideas that are also practical and workable. Romney is not a politician with his head in the clouds, dreaming up “fantasy legislation” that appeals only to one side of the political sphere. He’s a pragmatic conservative who understands the realities facing America, whether those realities are economic or political, and can work within those realities to get things done.

It is important to remember that these leaders in congress who are co-sponsoring Romney’s plan aren’t just expressing vocal support for Romney’s Medicare reform plan. They are taking their support to the highest level by co-sponsoring actual bills that use Romney’s proposals. Any one of Romney’s rivals for the Republican nomination would kill to have Paul Ryan and three other U.S. Senators co-sponsoring legislation about their ideas.

So, in order to get a more complete and accurate picture of how conservative Romney is on health care issues, we must look not just at RomneyCare but also Romney’s Medicare reform plan which is garnering a host of endorsements and co-sponsors from the most respected and popular conservatives in Washington.